Thanks to Egypt, Netanyahu will shun peace process for months

Do events in Egypt make it more or less important for Israel to move on quickly with Palestinian peace negotiations? You might think the answer is obvious. If Israel and the Palestinian leadership resolved their issues fast it would be a huge blow for all those parties who would seek further to isolate Israel in light of regional upheaval: Hizbollah in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Iran, Syria, Hamas.

Do it now, say Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livny and Jim Jones, former National Security Advisor to Barack Obama, and make Israel and the Palestinian state beacons of right in a region of turmoil and creeping Islamism.

This advice is going to be roundly ignored by the Israeli coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Avigdor Lieberman, the hardline foreign minister, said as much yesterday. Those that think the Palestinian process is more important than Egypt or Hamas are mad, he said. Actually he said that if you thought the Palestinian conflict was part of the broader Middle East's issues you were "trying to escape reality". Jim Jones said meanwhile that it was the core problem and solving it would go a long way to solving everything else.

Mr Netanyahu has implied repeatedly that Israel's long held land-for-peace strategy is dead or at best on a long hold in light of Egypt. He has stressed the importance of maintaining security instead. This is scarcely even code for doing nothing on Palestinian talks.

Since Mr Netanyahu can't get a deal through his fractious coalition anyway, Egypt lends him the rhetoric he needs for delay. I'm afraid I found it disingenuous at best when he said in a speech to parliament last week that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, did not want to talk. The feeling at least must have been mutual.

Israelis are also lulled by the status quo. The economy is doing OK and there is little terror on the streets. Mr Netanyahu does not have to put his position of power to the test and can use Egypt as a convenient pretext for further inaction with little challenge.

I do understand one genuine concern of Mr Netanyahu's. Who is to say for whom Mr Abbas speaks? Would any deal simply be scrapped by the next Palestinian leader just as the Muslim Brotherhood is threatening to rip up decades of peace with Egypt? Until the Egyptian situation is clearer, the Israeli government could argue, why would it tie its hands with some Palestinians it may not be dealing with next week?

It's a real issue, but doing nothing would be just as likely to weaken Mr Abbas and hasten the rise of opponents such as Hamas.